Delicious Cockroaches
by A Bullfrog's Worst Nightmare
Summary: Kissing Loony Lovegood was not something Ron wanted to do. Kissing Loony Lovegood after she's eaten an entire bag of Cockroach Clusters was certainly not any better.


**A/N: For the _28 Sweets for my Sweetheart_ challenge at the HPFC forum. I've never written Ron or Luna before so hopefully I didn't do badly. :/ Opinions loved and thanks for reading.**

* * *

The air was cold. Snow was falling thick and fast. There were small groups of students huddling together for warmth, but most people were inside the many stores. Christmas was approaching fast and it seemed like everyone was trying to get their shopping done. Everyone but a certain red haired boy.

Ron Weasley threw open the door of Honey Dukes and scrambled out into the snow with arm fulls of candy. The next Hogsmeade trip was awhile from now and Ron needed to replenish his infamous stock of sweets. The trip before Christmas was always the trip where Ron treated himself. His own Christmas shopping was saved until the last minute.

He stomped through the thick, heavy snow up the road and towards the school. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luna Lovegood waving happily at him. Ron kept his focus on the path in front of him and tried to ignore the blonde who was now hurrying after him.

She had a small package of her own clutched tightly in her pale hand. As Luna followed him, she was also trying to say something, but the words were muffled by whatever she had stuffed into her mouth.

Luna grabbed onto his jacket when she finally caught up to him and smiled at him in a dreamy way. Ron reluctantly said hello, hoping for just a quick conversation. Then again, things never went Ron's way.

In great detail, she began to describe the gorgeous and rare creature she discovered in the Three Broomsticks. Gorgeous, rare, and _imaginary, _Ron thought bitterly to himself.

While Ron was pretending to be interested in what Loony had to say, he noticed she was wearing no coat. Luna held her arms against her body to retain as much of her body heat as she could, but she was still visibly shivering.

"Aren't you cold?" Ron asked, interrupting Luna in the middle of her story. The interruption, however, just made Luna jump into a different story about how her coat was hidden from her.

Ron shoved his bags into Luna's arms and took off his own jacket. Then he traded his coat for his bags and told Luna she could wear his until she found her jacket.

"Well, that's very nice of you, Ron," Luna said and slipped the coat on. "Do you need help with your bags?"

Ron protested and said he was fine with carrying them by himself, but Luna insisted and grabbed a couple from his arms. When she walked, Luna had a small skip to her step, which almost made her slip and fall a couple of times. A habit that was starting to irritate Ron almost as much as having to stop every few steps so she could eat another handful of whatever she had her small brown bag.

A few seconds after Luna's last 'snack break', Ron noticed something hanging from her mouth. Was that a...leg? A closer look proved that it was indeed a leg. An insect leg.

"Um, Luna? You have something sticking out of your mouth," Ron said, pointing to the corner of his own mouth a his only free hand. Luna wiped her mouth on the back of her hand.

"Is it gone?"

"Yeah, what are you eating?" He asked. Luna held the brown bag out to him and Ron peered inside.

Cockroach Clusters.

He gaged at the thought of the disgusting treat. Who even likes Cockroach Clusters anyway? People like Loony Lovegood, that's who.

"Would you like some?" She offered, not noticing the retching faces Ron was making. He shook his head, and gave her a polite, yet strained, smile.

For the rest of the walk up to the school, Ron avoided looking at Luna. Just hearing the crunching noises coming from her mouth as she chewed the horrible sweets was making him feel sick.

Ron had never felt so relieved in his life when he walked through the main doors. He didn't even notice Luna telling him to watch where he was walking until she grabbed onto him for the second time of the day.

"You walked under mistletoe. Don't you know Nargles _live _in mistletoe," Luna explained, her blue eyes wide. Ron shrugged and turned to leave anyway. "Wait! What if a Nargle just stole some of the candy right out of your bags?"

Ron sighed, growing tired of Luna and her fake creatures that only existed in her head. Still, he decided to humor her and pretended to check that all his purchases were there, untouched. He rummaged around in the bags for a good five minutes until he stood up and reassured her everything was there.

She nodded, but her eyes were still glued to the bags on the floor. Luna shuffled her feet a little nervously, not meeting Ron's eyes.

"You know, Ron, since I caught you underneath the mistletoe, you have to let me kiss you," Luna remarked, still not looking at Ron.

Kiss him? There was no way he was going to let her even get near him after she had eaten an entire bag of Cockroach Clusters. Ron hardly felt Luna press her lips against his because he was so busy thinking about how terrible she would taste.

Her kiss was soft and tender, but she did taste utterly terrible. After he got used to her, though, Ron couldn't taste the candy covered dead bugs anymore. And instead of pushing her away like he planned to, he rested his hands on her waist and kissed her back.

No sooner than after they broke apart, did Luna quickly backed away from him. She went back to her normal, dreamy self and said it was lucky that the Nargles didn't steal anything.

As she skipped away, Ron decided that maybe Loony Lovegood wasn't so bad, and neither was Cockroach Clusters.


End file.
